Toys R Us Inc. : Research Proposal

Use the sales forecaster’s predication to describe a normal probability distribution that can be used to approximate the demand distribution. Sketch the distribution and show its mean and standard deviation.

J.C. Penney is a retail outlet that operates in many locations globally. It deals with product lines such as clothing, footwear, beauty products, electronics, and jewelry. There are several changes that have taken place in the macro environment that promises to increase the fortunes of the company. The advertisement in technology is one single important factor that has increased the performance of the business (Ali, 2007). The company has an elaborate website through which it uses to tap the online market. In fact, thirty percent of the company’s revenue comes from the website.

Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus opened the first Toys R Us store in Rockville in 1957. The company went public in 1978 and evolved into a powerful international toy vendor, with Kids R Us, Babies R Us and Toyrus.com. It operated 638 stores in the United States and 579 outside the country.

Organizational Hierarchy Structure- Toys R Us was a decentralized organization, which had a leadership type setting from country to country. This type of structure was difficult because all the leaders from different countries were not communicating effectively. The company knew they had to make some changes to the system, if they wanted to be successful. Therefore, after careful consideration, the company decided to move to a more centralized structure. This change was needed to strengthen their business with regards to their compatibility amongst countries and creating a more efficient workplace in the United States and abroad. In the company’s business in Europe, instead of their being different leaders across the continent, there will

ToyWorld, Inc. was founded in 1973 by David Dunton. Before that, he had been employed as production manager by a large manufacturer of plastic toys. Mr. Dunton and his former assistant, Jack McClintock, established Toy World, Inc. with their savings in 1973. Originally a partnership, the firm was incorporated in1974, with Mr. Dunton taking 75% of the capital stock and Mr. McClintock taking 25%. The latter served as production manager, and Mr. Dunton, as president, was responsible for overall direction of the company’s affairs. After a series of illnesses, Mr. Dunton’s health deteriorated, and he was forced

The Magic Toyshop is a British novel written by Angela Carter in 1967. It is about an adolescent female protagonist growing up in a patriarchal system where she began to experiences the discovery of her ripening sexuality. From the novel’s opening paragraph, it began with Melanie going through the moment of discovering her body in a sexual way, where it could be viewed as a representation of a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. Two oldest literary genres that Carter uses in The Magic Toyshop are often connected with mythology and fairy tales.

Through studying the entire retail toy industry, we have been able to understand the complexity of the industry in which Toys "R" Us operates. Upon completion of the analysis, we realized that the industry is growing stably,

There are many barriers to new organizations in the toy industry, making the threat of new entrants low. Lego and other big toy companies like Mattel benefit from economies of scale. An economy of scale is achieved by lower costs through large volume production (Textbook glossary). Economies of scale can occur in many departments within the organization including production, marketing, research and development, and finance. Some manufacturing of Lego products was shifted to Central Europe and Mexico in order to benefit from lower wages and to shorten product supply chains (p. 13 of case). The management of Lego additionally holds expertise on production, distribution and customer needs; which are absent in a new organization. To enter the toy sector a potential entrant needs to calculate the start of production at a level that will give a competitive position and production costs lower than the market.

Recapitalization seems to be the best alternative discussed in the case, mainly because of the underlying 39% IRR (discussed below). There are chances to expand the pie (through consolidation and/or operational improvement) and sell it at a higher price, taking the advantage of the potential market pick-up in 2003. Two potential risks are that the higher price is not guaranteed and that there is low interest from financial buyers and no powerful strategic buyer, future selling negotiations may take time again.

Sears grew up to the world’s largest retailer by expanding annual sales through diversifying sale products, such as apparel, cosmetics, jewelry, electronics, household appliances, cookware, bedding and hand-tools. This article shows that Sears suffered from a cost increase in 1997, including lawsuits, credit collectibles and sales in Mexico. Besides, the flexible payment facility that Sears offered is also a reason for cost increase. These problems brought Sears with bad debt and hence decreased the cash flow. The problems of the company came from the liquid market security, so I emphasize the flowing concepts:

Mr. Brandon, CEO of Toys R Us, Inc. stated “There is simply no reason to go somewhere else-our focus is kids and families every day of the year-unlike some of our competitors who only play (pun-intended) a few weeks a year” Toys “R” Us Inc.,2017, Oct 24). Another innovative way the company has gained competitive advantage recently is by introducing Play Labs nationwide. Play Labs are a free reality application which includes AR games and play experiences that children can play on their smartphone or tablet devices while they are in the stores shopping. Toys R Us is now more than just a place to shop, they have created experiences which bring their stores to life with their interactive games that the kids highly enjoy playing (Toys “R” Us Inc, 2017).

Figure 5 is made by the Porter’s Generic Strategies; this graph shows the main competitors for Toys R Us in toys and games industry. From this graph, we can find out Toys R Us is

Toys "R" Us, Inc. is the world’s leading dedicated toy and juvenile products retailer. As of January 29, 2005, it operated 1,499 retail stores worldwide and generated 11.1 billion in revenue. However, that’s a decrease of 1.9 percent from a year ago. Toys "R" Us has suffered from both downstream demand and increased competition from mass/discount channel such as Wal-Mart and Target. A group of private equity investors intends to do a leverage buyout of Toys "R" Us. They want to determine the risks and merits of an investment in Toys "R" Us, evaluate the spectrum of returns using multiple operating model scenarios, and identify strategic actions that might be undertaken to improve the risk/return profile

Toys “R” Us origins goes back to the first store named Children’s Bargain Town. The first products which were sold were baby furniture and cribs. To keep their customers satisfied they introduced infant products and toys for children of an older age. They then added cradle gyms, tricycles, books and an assortment of other toys.

Conclusion: The entry of Toys “R” Us would shake the traditional Japanese toy business, however the cracks appearing in the retail structure points towards the need for transformation in the Japanese market. Hence Toys “R” Us potentially is a good prospect for the Japanese markets.